Olympic Games of 2014
The 2014 Olympic Winter Games represented the twenty-second edition of the Winter Olympics, held from February 7 to 23 in Sochi, Russia. Marking the first time Russia hosted the Winter Games, the event was notable for its substantial cost, exceeding $50 billion. The games encountered various controversies, including protests related to LGBTQ+ rights, environmental concerns over Olympic infrastructure, and geopolitical tensions following the asylum granted to Edward Snowden by Russia. Notably, 2014 also marked the one-hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Circassian genocide, which some criticized as an inappropriate backdrop for the games.
Approximately 2,800 athletes from 88 nations participated in 98 events across 15 sports, with a record participation of women athletes exceeding 40%. The opening ceremony featured a unique athlete parade and a memorable moment when one of the Olympic rings failed to illuminate. Athletes delivered remarkable performances, with Norway's Ole Einar Bjørndalen becoming the most decorated male athlete in Winter Olympic history and notable achievements by competitors across various disciplines. Ultimately, Russia topped the medal tally with 33 total medals, followed closely by the United States and Norway, showcasing competitive excellence amidst a complex socio-political landscape.
Olympic Games of 2014
The 2014 Olympic Winter Games were the twenty-second installment of the Winter Games. The costliest Olympic Games to date at more than $50 billion were held from February 7 to 23, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. The event marked the first time Russia hosted the Winter Games. In 1980 the then Soviet Union hosted the Olympic Summer Games in Moscow.
Like many of the other Olympic Games, the 2014 games were mired in several controversies. Protests took place over gay rights issues in the country, and environmentalists opposed the building of new Olympic structures. The United States was at odds with Russia for giving asylum to whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was wanted for leaking U.S. government information. The alliance between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad caused conflicts. Some felt it was disrespectful to hold the Olympics in Sochi because 2014 marked the one-hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Circassian genocide.
Background
In July 2005, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) selected bids from seven cities as possible sites for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games: Sochi, Russia; Salzburg, Austria; Jaca, Spain; Almaty, Kazakhstan; PyeongChang, South Korea; Sofia, Bulgaria; and Borjomi, Georgia. In June 2006, the IOC narrowed it down to three cities: Sochi, Salzburg, and PyeongChang. It chose Sochi over PyeongChang by fifty-one votes to forty-seven in July 2007.
Sochi is located in the region of Krasnodar in Russia, and it has a population of more than four-hundred thousand people. The games were held in two different areas. An Olympic village was built in Sochi along the coast of the Black Sea in the Imeretinskaya Valley. Workers built several new facilities in Sochi to host the ice events. The ice venues were located within six kilometers of each other. Krasnaya Polyana Mountains hosted mountain events such as skiing and sliding. These venues were also very close, with only about four kilometers separating them. The distance between the two Olympic locations was a thirty-minute drive.
Eighty-eight nations plus one independent participated in the ninety-eight events in fifteen sports. The countries of Malta, Paraguay, Timor Leste, Togo, Tonga, and Zimbabwe competed in the games for the first time. A record number of athletes entered the XXII Olympic Winter Games: nearly twenty-eight hundred athletes—of these, more than 40 percent were women. More than one million spectators attended the event, and millions of other viewers watched from their televisions or followed events online. The IOC added twelve new events in 2014: team figure skating, luge relay, biathlon mixed relay, women's ski jumping, snowboard and ski slopestyle (men and women), ski half-pipe (men and women), and snowboard parallel slalom (men and women).
The Games
The XXII Olympic Winter Games opening ceremonies were different from previous Olympic Games in that the parade of athletes started the event in Russia. Afterward Russian three-time Olympic gold medalists Irina Rodnina and Vladislav Tretiak lit the Olympic cauldron. A spectacular ceremony filled with music and fireworks followed. However, one small mishap occurred when the fifth Olympic ring did not light during the ceremony. Other problems plagued Sochi during the Olympics, ranging from stray dogs roaming the streets to unsafe conditions that included open manholes, undrinkable water, and issues with newly constructed and often incomplete hotels. Despite these, the Olympic Games started without any serious issues.
Many athletes had very good performances at Sochi. Norwegian Ole Einar Bjørndalen won the 10km-sprint and the new mixed relay, bringing his total career medal count to thirteen and making him the most-decorated male athlete at the Olympic Winter Games. His compatriot Marit Bjørgen won three gold medals in skiathlon, team sprint, and 30km-freestyle to make her the most decorated woman at the games with six career gold medals.
The youngest and oldest athletes in alpine skiing—American Mikaela Shiffrin at age eighteen and Austrian Mario Matt at thirty-four—took top honors. Thirty-six-year-old American Bode Miller won the bronze in the super-G event, making him the oldest person to medal in that sport. However, the youngest overall medalist honors went to Japan's Ayumu Hirano, who at age fifteen won the silver in the snowboard half-pipe event. Russian luger Albert Demchenko and Japanese ski jumping champion Noriaki Kasai, both in their forties, received the overall oldest medalist honors by snagging silver medals in each of their events. Both had participated in six earlier Winter Olympic Games. Kasai also tied the record for the longest time between winning two silver medals at twenty years.
While Germany dominated the luge events with four gold medals, the Dutch men's and women's speed skating teams made twelve visits to the podium, earning twenty-three medals. Teammate Ireen Wüst won two gold and three silver speed skating medals, making her the athlete who won the most medals at the Winter Olympics.
Japan made history in figure skating, when Yuzuru Hanyu won more than one hundred points in the short program, earning him the gold. Italian luger Armin Zöggeler also broke a record when he won the bronze in his event, making him the first person to win six consecutive medals at six Winter Olympic Games. He previously won the bronze in 1994, silver in 1998, gold in 2002 and 2006, and bronze again in 2010. Norwegian biathlete Tora Berger and Korean short track speed skater Suk Hee Shim each won a gold, silver, and bronze at the games. Belarusian biathlete Darya Domracheva and Russian short track speed skater Victor Ahn each won three gold medals.
Russia won the most total medals with thirty-three, making it the first host nation to do so since Norway swept medal counts at the 1952 Olympic Winter Games in Oslo. Russia also captured the most gold medals at thirteen, while Norway won the second-most gold medals with eleven. The United States was the second most-successful nation with twenty-eight medals and American athletes won the most bronze medals.
Bibliography
Chase, Chris. "The 14 Most Fascinating Facts About the Final 2014 Winter Olympics Medal Count." USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc. 23 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Jan. 2015. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/02/olympics-medal-count-russia-sochi-united-states-most
Ilich, Bobby. "Sochi Problems: 2014 Winter Olympics Have Plenty of Ups and Downs." International Business Times. IBT Media Inc. 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Jan. 2015. http://www.ibtimes.com/sochi-problems-2014-winter-olympics-have-plenty-ups-downs-1554317
"Sochi 2014." Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Web. 23 Jan. 2015. http://www.olympic.org/sochi-2014-winter-olympics
"Sochi 2014 Opening Ceremony: Russia Welcomes the World." Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Web. 23 Jan. 2015. http://www.olympic.org/sochi-2014/opening-ceremony
"2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Jan. 2015. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/14/world/2014-sochi-winter-olympics-fast-facts/
"2014 Sochi Winter Games." Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Web. 23 Jan. 2015. http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/winter/2014/